Local Golf Courses Cash In On Increasing Demands

Palm Beach County is undergoing tremendous growth and change. Even on its golf courses.

The U.S. Commerce Department`s Bureau of Economic Analysis projects that between now and the year 2000, Palm Beach County will be the country`s fastest-growing major metropolitan area.

And as that happens, it is becoming more expensive for residents to become members at semi-private and private golf and country clubs.

Of the 70 courses in Palm Beach County, 27 that offer memberships or permits and would release the information have indicated an increase in annual dues, equity bonds, or initiation fees since last year.

Amount of the increases vary from course to course. At Lucerne Lakes in Lake Worth, memberships are up $75 from last year to $750. At Boca Pointe Golf and Racquet Club, the family rate has jumped from $2,220 to $2,750. And at Boynton Beach`s Pine Tree Golf Club, initiation fees have leaped from $12,500 to $17,500. Pine Tree also requires an equity bond of $5,200 and annual dues.

``You have to put up $25,000 to get on our waiting list,`` said Pine Tree head pro Bob Ross. ``All of the increase at all the courses is just the old story of supply and demand.

``There are more people with more money who want to play golf. The clubs are in competition. If one raises its fees, then the others will raise them, too. The higher prices have been a gradual thing over the years. It just didn`t happen overnight.

``It`s like the price of land. When this club started (in 1961) you could buy land around here for $1,000 or $2,000 an acre. Now there is a $30,000 per acre minimum.``

Ross said clubs such as Pine Tree are tailored for retirees who relocate to Palm Beach County.

``So many of the clubs being built today are housing-development situations. A lot of people who retire come down here wanting to live by the ocean and there aren`t a lot of clubs they can join without buying property or a house in a development.``

Ross expects prices to continue to rise.

``I don`t think increases in fees will stop,`` he said. ``It will keep going. The net worth of our club keeps going up and they`re going to make new members pay for it.

``Nobody ever complains (about rising fees). First of all, when you`re trying to get into a club, you don`t complain about things, or they`ll blackball you.``

Ruth Owens, assistant to the manager at the Everglades Club in Palm Beach, agrees with Ross about the influx of golfers. The Everglades requires a $25,000 equity bond as it did last year, but raised it`s annual family dues from $2,100 to $2,500.

``Most of the people don`t care what it costs,`` Owens said. ``It`s economics and supply and demand. They all know costs have gone up. They accept it just like we all do with everyday things.

``We also did a lot of repairs and additions at our club and it all figures into it.``

The nation`s overall inflation rate may be down from a few years ago, but costs for maintaining a golf course have risen sharply in the past few years, said John Cowden, golf director at the Hamptons Golf Club. The Hamptons, located in the Century Village community west of Boca Raton, raised its rate for annual single memberships from $800 to $1,500 in the past year.

``Rising fees are a result of rising costs for fertilizers, other chemicals, top dressings, sand for the traps and labor,`` Cowden said. ``Labor is the big thing. Before, I could hire someone off the street for $4.10 or $4.20 an hour. Now, off the street, with no experience, I have to start them at $5 an hour.

``If they have experience, you`re talking $6.50 to $7 an hour. And for all our golf course machinery, we have only two basic supppliers -- Toro and Jacobson. They control the price. No matter what they charge, if that`s what you want, that`s what you have to pay.

``Costs have gone up more since 1980 or `81 than they did in the `60s or `70s. As an example, I could buy a greens mower for $9,200 in 1980. The same one today costs me $14,600.``

In all of this, there is one consolation, albeit a small one, for the Palm Beach County golfer -- the price of golf balls.

``Twenty years ago, you paid a buck and a quarter for a Titleist in a pro shop,`` said Drew Persenaire, owner of Drew`s Golf Shop in Boynton Beach. ``Now you can get a Titleist in a pro shop for two bucks. That`s not that much of an increase.

``And if you come into a store like mine, you can get a dozen for $18, which breaks down into $1.50 a ball. That`s only a quarter more than they cost 20 years ago.``